Supernatural Slasher about evil Saint Nick returning every 5th December, but only if there's a full moon, to revenge his death. The first hour and set up are simply excellent, but the movie runs out of steam in its final act. Still, I think this is much more enjoyable than the similar Rare Exports (2010). 4/5

Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters (2013) (Blu-ray)

Loud, fast, gory. This was fun. Also, great casting. Always nice to see Famke Janssen, and Cold Prey's Ingrid Bolso Berdal making her U.S. debut. 4/5

The Woman in Black (2012) (Blu-ray)

This was pretty much what I've expected. They original was a simple but effective creepy little flick with a cult following. The remake adds new stuff and comes off a bit bloated. Still very atmospheric and I loved the setting. 4/5

This is definitely the strangest movie I have come across in this marathon. Directed by Luigi Cozzi this was originally intended to be the conclusion of Argento's Three Mothers trilogy. Cozzi had worked on several Argento projects as a writer and 2nd unit director before and his influence is very clear in the lighting of some of these scenes. Suspira is actually mentioned early on and a characters states that 100's of movies could be made from the plot, that is how genius that movie is! It was titled The Black Cat to tie in with Edgar Allan Poe but also somehow ended up being titled a "Demons" sequel (which like Fulci's "Zombie" has endless unrelated films listed as follow ups)

So what is the end result? A big ol mess in what has to be the most incoherent of all the italian genre films of I have seen (which is a lot, and if you know anything about Italian Horror films even the best are at least mostly ridiculous). What little plot there is involves the making of a sequel to Suspira which for some reason angers a witch... Sorry I would go on but I really have no clue what was happening at any point here and as I write I am watching the last 10 minutes. Cozzi has some understanding of the lighting that goes into a classic Ital Horror film but his camera movement and editing are rather atrocious. The main appeal of this film is it's obscurity (never released on dvd to my knowledge) and it's bizarre connection to the Argento mythos. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2mvwNIlfP8A

There was an interesting article in Fangoria once on how Caroline Munro got burned making this movie. Apparently the production was troubled and chaotic right from the beginning. Munro was only paid half of her salary which led to embarrassing scenes on the set. I always wanted to see The Black Cat though. Thanks for the youtube link :)

Zombie Lake (1981) - some zombies live in a lake and if you go swimming in there they'll kill you. They also come into town for a bite once in a while. This was 20% porno and 80% Z-grade zombie schlock. Good for a chuckle or two: the zombies were bright green and one of them walked around like a hippie on an acid trip. When the villagers decide to go kill the zombies, well it's just 10 or so extras and all they do is stand there, but they manage to do so in a hysterical manner. One old guy looks so excited you'd think he just won the lottery I had to FF through a bit of it though. Yeah those boobs are nice but I don't need to look at them for another 5 minutes. 2.5/5.

Phone (2002) - Korean movie about a female reporter who's written some story exposing a sex scandal. She's getting threatening phone calls from the people involved in it so she changes her phone number - to a haunted phone number. Yup, a ghost starts calling her, and her niece answers one of the calls and seems to become possessed. Over the course of the movie we find out the whole story behind the ghost. I don't know if I was just in a really weird mood last night or what, but this is my favorite movie I've watched this month. Oh it's got some problems: the middle is confusing because you don't know what's happening now and what's a flashback; it borrows a bit heavily from Ju-On and Ringu; the little possessed girl's acting goes over the top to comical territory on one occasion, and the sound of that damned phone ringing is really annoying. But I think the good more than makes up for the bad. It's got great acting and the atmosphere is just terrific - dark stormy nights, Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata setting a somber mood, great photography, lighting, etc. And the whole explanation of the origins of the ghost worked really well for me, it's interesting and told in an exciting way. 5/5.

A Tale of Two Sisters (2003) - another Korean movie. I don't know what to say about this, it's like spending two hours watching a meandering dream inside the mind of a crazy person. The reviewers who like it say you need to watch it twice to figure out what the hell's going on; I could barely finish it the first time. And there's a big reveal halfway through that explained everything to my (dis)satisfaction. 2/5.

Just watched "The Stuff" (1985) for the first time in dog years. It hasn't aged well at all. When I was fourteen, I thought the humorous bits were hysterical and the monster bits were creepy. Now that I'm middle aged, the attempts at comedy fell flat and the monster scenes were just silly looking.

The dog of Dracula and his human sidekick must travel from Romania to L.A. in order to find the last descendant of Dracula. Without a master those two can't survive. They eventually find him, and his family, on a camping trip. Dracula's dog bites other dogs and soon enough a whole pack of vampire dogs close in on the camping family.Pretty original take on the old blood-sucker tale with some tense animal action. The rest is a mix of dull and fun cheese.

Blood Mania (1970) (DVD)

Watchability: 3/5Energy drain: 2.5/5

Beefcake doctor with money problems teams with nymphomaniac daughter of a wealthy but mean patient he takes care off. They speed up the dying process but the last will makes a long lost lesbian daughter the sole heiress.Thriller-Drama with a healthy dose of 1960s psychedelica and lots of sex and nudity. Though not really horror but it somewhat leans in that direction thanks to erotic zombified dreams and over-the-top blood-splatter kill-scene in bathroom.

Twisted Nightmare (1987) - some kids go to a farm out in the woods for a weekend of partying. One of the girls had a brother who was killed at one of their get-togethers years earlier...or was he? Very typical slasher, I just couldn't get into it. Probably didn't help that the 240p Youtube video I watched had such bad quality that I was just looking at human-shaped blobs walking around most of the time. I found it extremely predictable and the theme music didn't do anything to make is suspenseful. The characters were at least okay though. I dunno, maybe I just wasn't in the mood for it. 2.5/5.

Snakes on a Train (2006) - so this Mexican girl is under a curse that causes her to puke up snakes. Her boyfriend's trying to get her to LA where a witch doctor will hopefully be able to take the curse off her, but that's a 16 hour train ride away, and sort of bad news for everyone else traveling Amtrak that day. I enjoyed this, it's fun and has some decent characters. Good little subplots with the secondary characters keeps things interesting. No masterpiece but a pleasant enough waste of 90 minutes. 3.5/5.

Ghosts of Mars (2001) - some ancient spirits on Mars have taken over the bodies of a bunch of miners who work there (Mars has been terraformed), and turned them into a bunch of Road Warrior rejects. It's up to Natasha Henstridge and Ice Cube to save the day. I've watched this about 5 times now and always enjoy it. Kind of a tongue-in-cheek B movie but I liked the atmosphere of it and the characters are a lot of fun. 4/5.

Movie # 25Invitation to Hell (1984)1984 was one hell of a busy year for Wes Craven putting out his classic Nightmare on Elm Street, The Hills Have Eyes 2, and Invitation to Hell. The most obscure of these is the latter being a made for tv movie. This is pretty much Craven's version of the "Stepford Wives" with a couple sci fi twists thrown in. We have your typical 80's family moving into a new neighborhood. Turns out dad has a great new job at a tech company and has invented a suit that can withstand heat and shoot lasers! All is not perfect though there's a local health club that will seemingly stop at nothing to get the family to join.

Despite having some talent behind the camera including cinematographer Dean Cundey (All John Carpenter movies, Jurrasic Park etc...) and a great synth score this never rises above it's tv movie roots. The biggest culprit is the writing it's just so corny it makes the family scenes pretty unbearable. Well at least I'm one step closer to seeing every Wes Craven movie...

Movie # 26 The Gate 2: The Trespassers (1990)The first Gate movie was a childhood favorite that I can remember watching over and over again. Even back then though I remember not having much for this sequel but could remember much of it. Taking place a couple years after the first one our nerdy hero is traumatized by the events of the first Gate film. Despite this he still muddles with the Gate yet again getting interrupted by some neer do well teenagers this time. This causes a minion to pass through the gate bringing with it the ability to make wishes come true.

This is a better film than I remembered but still not great by any means. It's clear they were dealing with a much lower budget as for most of the running time we only see one tiny little creature. There is a dark melancholy tone to much of this especially with Terry's relationship with his alcoholic father. Touches like this show that the creators wanted to make something more than just a cash in which makes me appreciate this a bit more. Still the best horror sequels up the ante but this one dials it down considerably making it a disappointing sequel.

A group of teenage friends get into a small commuter plane in order to go to a Coldplay concert and spend some time together. Our female lead has limited flying experience but decides to embark on the trip regardless. Thing's go badly when she loses sight of just where she is going and the plane begins to malfunction. If that wasn't bad enough there's some kind of monster outside.

The biggest problem with this movie is the characters. Their generic as can be (the artist kid, girl who films everything, the jock etc..) but worse than that we never understand why they would be friends. Right from the get go they are arguing and there is no sense of them having ever been friends. Once the action gets going things get a bit better and I was actually reasonably engaged. The ending tries to go for an M Night kind of twist but it just doesn't work at all. The creature itself is actually pretty impressive looking very HP Lovecraft inspired problem is you only see it for a minute tops. Avoid.

Movie # 28The Woman (2011) Relentlessly disturbing tale from the mind of writer Jack Ketchum (The Girl Next Door). When hunting one day a family man finds a wild feral women roaming around the forest. He decides to capture her take her home and "civilize her". His wife and daughters largely watch on hopelessly while his son is more than eager to participate. Torture, bondage and rape follow for about 100 or so minutes.

This is a sick repulsive movie maybe a bit less so than Girl Next Door but not by much. Ketchum seems to like genital mutilation, imprisoned women and abuse as they featured prominently in both films. What makes these films difficult to dismiss outright is that you cant deny there is some serious craft going into making them. Excellent cinematography, interesting music choices and good acting are present in both features. Some have pointed out feminist themes (men certainly don't come off to well here) in this work and I can see them throughout. However if the best a male director/writer team can come up with for their pro feminist film is 90 plus minutes of violence against women maybe it's better they explore some other philosophies in their work... Again I didn't completely hate this I liked the initial premise quite a bit and the last 10 minutes are pretty great but the middle is quite the slog.

Super Hybrid (2010) - a homicidal shape-shifting car is loose in a parking garage and it's up to a team of mechanics and their a-hole manager to stop it, or at least survive the night. This is a favorite of mine, the premise is ridiculous but it's played (pretty much) straight and it's a lot of fun. It actually manages a bit of suspense from time to time and the characters are an entertaining bunch. Especially Shannon Beckner in her tight little tank top 4/5.